We Are Called to be His Arms

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:13-16

I have been meditating this past week about what new topic the Holy Spirit would inspire me to write about. Many different options were crowding my mind but the one that kept coming to the surface, was light and salt. This past Sunday we celebrated Pentecost. On Pentecost, the Apostles received the Holy Spirit and the Church was officially born. They started spreading the Good News to all the corners of the world.

We also received the Holy Spirit when we were baptized and that made us disciples of Jesus. As His disciples, we are called to be His witnesses in today's world. We are to be like salt that savors or like light that is visible to all. In other words, we are to bring Christ to those around us.

My first true encounter with Jesus took place when I was 16 years old in a Youth Encounter (Encuentros Juveniles). I thought I knew Him since I had attended Catholic school growing up in Spain and I was part of my church youth group, but on that weekend, I realized that I didn't know Him at all. One thing that called my attention during that Encounter weekend was that the crucifix in the chapel was missing an arm. I felt really bad that someone had broken His arm. Every time I looked at it, I felt sad. At the end of the retreat, we were given a small crucifix to take home with us and I was in shock that this crucifix was also missing an arm. And then, on the last talk of the retreat, we were told that the reason why both the crucifix in the chapel and the one that we were taking home was missing an arm was because we were called to be Jesus' arm. Tears began to flow down my face and it was a message that I have never forgotten.

I have not always been a good arm. Many times I have been a very lazy arm. But I know that Jesus needs me just like He needs you. All of us are the arms of Jesus. We are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are called to bring Christ to everyone we meet. We are called to be His arms.

Death is not the End... It's the Beginning

"So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God." Mark 16:19

This week we are celebrating the last week of the Easter season. This past Sunday we celebrated the Ascension of our Lord to heaven and next Sunday we will celebrate Pentecost. Throughout this entire Easter Season I've been writing directly or indirectly about death. It was certainly not my intention but God always gets His way and somehow that's the path He led me through ever since the abuelas came to visit me in a dream. But as we celebrate His ascension to heaven, I would like to close this topic by sharing a meditation I wrote last October, a few months before I started this blog.

A few years ago, in an Emmaus meeting, a lady asked me: “What is your biggest fear?” My answer was immediate, without a second thought: “My biggest fear is to lose a child.” I remember she answered me with another question: “Wouldn’t you feel the biggest joy if you release your children back to the Lord?” My answer was a resounding “NO.”

During the past two years I have been to funeral homes at an average of one per month, so I’ve had no choice but to reflect a lot about death.  Death does not discriminate.  In the last two years, I have witnessed God calling home a 2 year-old who drowned on her pool, a 19 year-old who was hit by a car, a 50 year-old who died of cancer, my 84 year-old in laws who died two months apart from each other, my 101 year-old uncle who died of old age and everything in between.

I used to be terrified of death.  But in these past two years, I have become less afraid.  I’ve been thinking a lot today as to what has changed within me.  And I realized that I used to see death as the end.  Yes, I believed in heaven but I still saw death as the end.  Death was the end of life here on earth.  But sometime within the last two years, I have started to look at death not as the end but as the beginning.  It’s the beginning of our life in heaven.  It’s the beginning of our life with Jesus.  How can I be afraid of death if death will take me to Jesus?

A couple of weeks ago, a lady from my Bible class who bid good-bye to her 58 year-old husband on Easter Sunday, said these words to me: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.  We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”  When we look at our lives that way, we should not be afraid of dying.  If we think of ourselves as spiritual beings instead of as human beings, we can’t fear death because death will simply transform us to what we are meant to be:  spirits in heaven.

Today I attended the “resurrection” mass for Danny Pino, the 19 year-old who was hit by a car two weeks ago.  He was a good friend of my youngest son, Alex.  His mass was not called a “funeral” mass.  His mass was a “resurrection” mass because his family knows that he has resurrected with the Lord in heaven.  His family knows that his death is not the end, it’s the beginning.  And yes, it was sad.  There was not a dry eye in that church.  But in my case, my tears were for his mom, for his dad, for his sister, for his brother, for his family… because they are going to miss his presence, his joy, his loyalty, his compassion, his laugh…  I cried for them because I know how much they are going to miss him.  But I know that Danny, without a doubt, is in heaven.  Just like the priest said:  “He is already creating havoc in heaven.  The angels are trying to determine in which choir they are going to place Danny.”  And from heaven, he will continue to love his family.  And they will feel him in the whisper of the wind, they will see him in the rainbow, they will hear him in the rain and they will hold him forever in their hearts.

During the mass, we sang one of my favorite songs, “I can only imagine” by Mercy Me: “I can only imagine what my eyes will see when your face is before me…  Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel? Will I dance for You Jesus? Or in awe of You be still? Will I sing, Hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all?”

I would like to think that I will be dancing and singing with joy, but since in my humanity I’m not musically inclined, must likely as a spiritual being I won’t be either so I most likely will be still in awe of my Creator.  I can only imagine what a beautiful moment that will be.  And when that moment comes, I have to be ready.

Danny’s motto was:  “So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart…  Love your life.  Perfect your life.  Beautify all things in your life.  Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.  When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death…  Sing your death Song and die like a Hero going Home.” (Prayer of Tecumseh)

Even though I still would prefer to go before my children, I know that it is not my choice and that it is only the selfish part of me that wants to reach heaven first.  Today, if someone were to ask me, “what is your biggest fear?” my answer would be very different.  My biggest fear is no longer to lose a child.  My biggest fear is to die out of grace.  My biggest fear is that my children could die out of grace.  So my prayer has turned from “God please don’t take my children,” to “God please save my children’s souls.  Let them live their lives for You and in the service of your people.  So that when you decide to call us home, in whichever order you desire, we are all ready to go home and sing, dance or in awe of You be still.”

Today I know that it is a big JOY to release our children back to the Lord when they are ready to go HOME.  Danny is HOME today and even though he will be missed forever here on earth, his family is full of JOY because they know that one day they will reunite again with him in our heavenly home.

This is the lesson that Jesus came to teach us, the reason why He came to earth, the reason why He endured the crucifixion and the reason why He resurrected. He came to teach us that death is not the end, it's the beginning and one day, we will all reunite in heaven.

Heaven's Threshold-Part II

There is a story that makes its way into my e-mail box at least once a year. I have tried to find out who the author is to give him/her credit but I was not successful. So here's this beautiful story from an unknown author:

THE SILVERSMITH

There was a group of women in a Bible study on the book of Malachi. As they were studying chapter three, they came across verse three which says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver" Malachi 3:3. This verse puzzled the women and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out about the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible study. That week this woman called up a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest in silver beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot--then she thought again about the verse, that he sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"

He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy--when I see my image in it."

I always think of this story when I'm going through a difficult time in my life. But it also makes me think of purgatory. Purgatory, the place where God will refine us over the fire to burn away all our impurities. And we will need to stay there until God can see His image reflected in our souls.

After doing all the research, reading and thinking about purgatory, I still had a lot of unanswered questions. So I decided to send an e-mail to Father Guillermo "Willie" Garcia-Tuñon who taught Philosophy at Belen for various years. One of the questions I had was whether we spend part of Purgatory here on earth. I wanted to believe that the suffering that we endure here on earth would somehow give us brownie points for purgatory, thus either eliminating our need to spend time in purgatory or it would reduce the amount of time we had to be there. After all, while we are here on earth, we endure a lot of suffering. Isn't God purifying us through our suffering? I have certainly felt that I've been in the furnace many times. 

Father Willie clarified this very eloquently:

"No chance that purgatory is an earthly thing. This is not purgatory even though people have said it because of the suffering that we are undergoing. The Church understands purgatory as something other-worldly, not this-worldly. There is no doubt that the struggles and the suffering that we undergo here on earth are opportunities to grow close to Jesus and challenges that make us stronger, but they are not part of the experience that is purgatory."

He also confirmed what I shared yesterday from St. John Paul II's teaching:

"One of the biggest challenges in speaking about heaven, purgatory and hell is that we often times use common earthly language to explain uncommon divine things. Words and phrases that refer to space (e.g. "going to,” “place” or “in") and time (length spent in purgatory) give the impression that it is like a holding cell or a cage where one is held until the right moment. The fact is that purgatory is more like a state of being or experience of purification because we can only come face to face with God (heaven) when we are pure and clean. Who is in that state at the moment of death? Well, we can never say exactly because we don’t know, but you can bet that the state of purity we need to be in to see the face of God has to be like that of the Blessed Mother. There are two analogies I often times use to understand. First, it is like the experience of washing your hands before you sit at the table to have a meal. If your hands are very dirty you got to scrub up pretty well and spend more time at the sink than if your hands are not as dirty. Second analogy is like the experience of being in a dark room for a period of time and then someone turns on the light. The adjustment your eyes have to make to the light is like the purification that we need to endure in order to see the source of Light that is Jesus Christ. The good news is that one way or another, purgatory means we are saved. Another point, the need for purgatory does not mean that Jesus doesn’t or can’t save. It only means that we have a hard time embracing salvation."

I like Father Willie's analogies, especially the one about the hands. Even though I was a bit disappointed in finding out that our earthly suffering does not take away from purgatory, I was happy to hear that if our hands are clean, God won't need to scrub us too hard.

I also asked him whether he believed that the souls in purgatory could hear us and pray for us. Here is what Father Willie had to say:

"I would imagine that the souls in purgatory can hear us and that the same way we can pray for them, they can pray for us. As for praying for the souls in purgatory, read 2 Maccabees 12:39-46. The story shows that even the Jews prayed for the deceased and their 'cleansing.'”

I further confirmed this from a 1923 book by Right Rev. PW Keppler D.D. called "The Poor Souls in Purgatory, A Homiletic Treatise with Some Specimen Sermons." This is what it says regarding the souls in purgatory and whether they can pray for us: "Charity towards others can not have ceased in these souls at their entrance into Purgatory, nor can it have been condemned to complete impotence and silence. Their own penal state does not necessarily prevent from lending assistance to others. The Poor Souls enjoy divine grace and are God's friends, and hence their intercession is pleasing to Him and certain to be heard, because and in as far as they correspond with the divine plan of salvation."

In conclusion, after all this research, my personal opinion is that purgatory makes a lot of sense. However, it is not a place like we usually imagine. It is a state of being where we will undergo purification. We do not need to worry about length of time because in this state, time as we know it does not exist. I believe that some humans, for example babies, will not need to undergo this purification process because they are sinless, but the rest of us will need to undergo some purification in order to prepare ourselves to see the face of God. But I am no longer afraid because if I reach purgatory, I will know without a doubt that I am saved and that I am in the threshold of heaven. Those that reject God and die in mortal sin, will live eternally in a state of damnation that we call hell but those that accept the father's mercy even at the moment of death, will undergo a purification process known as purgatory which will get us ready to encounter the Father face to face and live eternally in a state of love where we will forever be in communion with God.

Purgatory should not scare us. As long as we live our life here on earth in communion with God, spreading His love to everyone we meet and doing the best we can to live a holy life, we will reach heaven even if we first need to undergo a purification process. And whether our loved ones are in purgatory or they have already reached heaven, they can still hear us and they can unite our prayers to ours. Just like we pray for the souls in purgatory, we can ask the souls in purgatory to pray for us.

And the good news is that if we reach purgatory, we are safe. We are at heaven's threshold. In the blink of an eye, we will find ourselves face to face with God. How awesome is that.

Heaven's Threshold-Part I

After three weeks of trying to put together all my research on purgatory in a way that would not bore you to tears, I finally finished it. Nothing like a 3-hour plane ride to get me into writing mode. However, this turned out to be much longer than anticipated so I'm going to split it into two parts. Here is part one. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed researching this subject and writing about it.

"For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire." 1 Cor 3:11-15

Purgatory is a very difficult and controversial subject. I have no idea why the Holy Spirit has been pushing me to talk about this topic. I guess because I've been thinking about it too much in these past couple of years so it's time to take the bull by the horn. I will start by saying that the thought of purgatory used to terrify me because I am scared of fire. I used to think of purgatory as a place, similar to hell, where we had to stay for an undetermined amount of time, while we underwent burning purification. I did not like this idea because I once splattered my finger with hot oil and I have never forgotten the pain. Therefore, I always thought of purgatory as a very painful place.

Purgatory is a controversial subject because the Catholic Church is the only one that believes in it and it's a difficult subject because no one has returned after dying to confirm that there is indeed a purgatory. I have been reading a lot about this topic and I can tell you that there are a multitude of opinions out there. Even the doctors of the Catholic Church differ in their beliefs. So what I intend to do on this post is simply share some of the answers I have found and my personal conclusion after all this research. I don't mean to change anyone's mind because after all, we won't know the whole truth until God comes knocking at our door to take us home.

The topic of purgatory has been around for a long time. St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians already mentions that "we will be saved but only as through fire" 1 Cor 3:15. Even though he doesn't call this purification purgatory it hints that in order to be saved we must go through the fire. In the second century, the Catholic theologian Tertullian wrote his "Treatise on the Soul (de anima)" where he proposed that souls are aware and subject to punishment. Tertullian believed that a soul destined for resurrection still had to undergo some sort of punishment: "the soul undergoes in Hades some compensatory discipline, without prejudice to the full process of the resurrection" Treatise on the Soul, LVIII.

The doctors of the Church differed in their beliefs about purgatory. St. Thomas Aquinas believed that there is no purgatory after this life. He based his belief in Revelation 14:13 which states that "Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord. 'Yes,' says the Spirit, 'they will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.'" St. Thomas claimed that "after this life no cleansing labor awaits those who die in the Lord, nor those who do not die in the Lord, since they cannot be cleansed" St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae. St. Augustine said, in "The City of God," that "temporary punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by others after death, by others both now and then; but all of them before that last and strictest judgment" (21:13). It is between the particular and general judgments, then, that the soul is purified of the remaining consequences of sin according to St. Augustine.

Much more recent, St. John Paul II spoke about heaven, hell and purgatory during three of his Wednesday General Audiences in the summer of 1999. He said that "the essential characteristic of heaven, hell or purgatory is that they are states of being of a spirit (angel/demon) or human soul, rather than places." He also said that "Before we enter into full communion with God (heaven), every trace of sin within us must be eliminated and every imperfection in our soul must be corrected." St. John Paul II believed that "we cannot approach God without undergoing some kind of purification." He backed up his belief in scripture. "According to Old Testament religious law, what is destined for God must be perfect...Total dedication to the God of the Covenant, along the lines of the great teachings found in Deuteronomy (cf. 6: 5), and which must correspond to this physical integrity, is required of individuals and society as a whole (cf. 1 Kgs 8: 61). It is a matter of loving God with all one's being, with purity of heart and the witness of deeds (cf. ibid., 10: 12f.) The need for integrity obviously becomes necessary after death, for entering into perfect and complete communion with God. Those who do not possess this integrity must undergo purification... We are invited to 'cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit' (2 Cor 7: 1; cf. 1 Jn 3: 3), because the encounter with God requires absolute purity. Every trace of attachment to evil must be eliminated, every imperfection of the soul corrected. Purification must be complete, and indeed this is precisely what is meant by the Church's teaching on purgatory. The term does not indicate a place, but a condition of existence." L'Osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in English, Heaven: 28 July 1999, Hell: 4 August 1999, Purgatory: 11/18 August 1999.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines purgatory as a "purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven," which is experienced by those "who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified" (CCC 1030). The purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches, nothing impure will enter the presence of God in heaven (Rev. 21:27).

In Part two, I will share my conclusion on this topic. Please feel free to comment. I would love to hear your opinions and beliefs regarding Purgatory.